Chapter 841 Ask me to be the editor-in-chief?

I have to say, Clay knows how to promote.

His statement, coupled with the recent back-and-forth publicity and the million-dollar stunt, directly made the award he set up for the seven major problems of the millennium become a household name.

Now, no matter what, the mathematics community must take it seriously.

After all, there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics.

Although almost half of the Nobel Prizes in Economics have been awarded to scholars in the field of mathematics, people once believed that the economics prize was compensation for mathematicians.

Although including but not limited to the Wolf Prize and the Fields Medal, they all claim to be the "Nobel Prize in Mathematics".

However, there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics after all.

Maybe mathematicians can ignore this.

But not in mathematics—

In fact, most mathematicians just say they don't care.

Correspondingly, the reputation of the Clay Institute has been raised to the level of the world's top academic institutions.

Of course, it's just fame.

In terms of strength, it is obviously still a little lacking at the moment.

But research, to put it bluntly, is all about people and money.

Compared with other fields, theoretical mathematics may not produce immediate results.

But at least there is a positive correlation.

With enough fame and an investor willing to spend money, the takeoff of Clay Research is basically a foregone conclusion.

It’s just a question of how high you can fly.

"Professor Chang, let me congratulate you in advance for being the first scholar to receive this reward."

During the few minutes of watching TV, Chang Haonan did not hang up the phone.

So, after Clay answered this question, Tang Lintian congratulated him immediately.

"Ah... external things, external things"

Chang Haonan put the phone to his ear again:

"Besides, you know my situation. I probably won't go to receive the award..."

At this point, he muttered to himself:

"Perelman probably wouldn't..."

But Tang Lintian gave a different answer:

"Hey, Professor Chang, my guess is that unless you explicitly refuse to accept the award, even if Landon Clay hears that you are not going to receive it, he will probably give it to you."

"..."

Chang Haonan thought it was a bit outrageous at first, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it made some sense.

From the perspective of making big news, a normal awards ceremony is obviously a bit too bland.

Even a year later, the general public may not remember such an incident.

But the plot of "the mathematician is indifferent to fame and fortune and is unwilling to attend the award ceremony, but the sponsor keeps his promise and presents the award in person" is definitely a very interesting story no matter what the final result is.

If this were put on the BBC, they would probably make a documentary series...

After chatting about other things for a while, Tang Lintian took the initiative to end the call.

In his words:

"Today your time belongs to many people, I can't monopolize it..."

Sure enough, it was just as Tang Lintian expected.

Chang Haonan just put down his phone.

I didn't even have time to pour myself a glass of water.

The second call came in.

"Congratulations, Professor Chang!"

The voice on the phone was a little distorted, so Chang Haonan couldn't tell who it was for a moment.

Fortunately, the other party did not just say this:

"When I defended my thesis last year, I was a little confused. Why did Principal Tang insist on looking for someone like me who specializes in mathematics? Now it seems that Mr. Tang is more far-sighted..."

"You have made a stunning debut. It is no exaggeration to say that you have pushed the entire Chinese mathematics community forward 20 years."

Now I heard it.

It’s Yuan Xiangya.

The Chinese mathematics community once had a brief period of glory, but after the Zhejiang University School of Chen Jinggong and Su Buqing, and the Chinese analytic number theory school of Hua Luogeng, it has indeed not made any decent voice for decades.

Until a week ago.

In the past seven days, the name Hua Xia has appeared in discussions in the international mathematics community more times than in the previous 20 years combined.

"President Yuan, this... is really an honor..."

Chang Haonan is not modest.

The achievement of proving the Poincare conjecture is of course of great significance, but it is still an isolated case for now.

In terms of influence, unless he really trains a group of students in the future, it will be impossible for him to compete with those prestigious schools relying solely on individual achievements.

Yuan Xiangya made this call not just to congratulate Chang Haonan, so after a round of greetings, he quickly got to the point:

"Professor Chang, this is the case. Academician Yang Jueyang of our Institute of Mathematics and Systems Science has always had the idea of ​​establishing a mathematics journal that belongs to China and has a certain influence. However, he has been unable to find a scholar with sufficient influence to serve as the editor-in-chief. So he asked me to ask you if you are interested in this matter?"

Although Yuan Xiangya is not yet an academician, he is already the vice president of the Institute of Mathematics and Systems Science.

This is actually quite normal.

As mentioned before, the number of academicians is fixed and they are replaced by new members. A member can only be removed due to death or major problems.

Not only China, but all countries' academies of science basically follow this logic.

It is impossible to be squeezed out just because your contribution is greater than others.

Then everyone will be in danger.

In this way, if all the academicians of a department happen to be in good health and there is no reduction in the number of members for many years...

We can only wait in line.

……

In response to Yuan Xiangya's question, Chang Haonan did not give an immediate answer.

In fact, establishing China's own top academic journal, and even establishing China's academic system, is something Chang Haonan had been thinking about for several years.

But his idea still starts from engineering, or natural science in a narrow sense (physical science + life science).

Compared with theoretical mathematics, these two directions are also the areas that Chang Haonan is more interested in and better at.

"Dean Yuan."

After a few minutes, Chang Haonan spoke again:

"Do you think that in the field of theoretical mathematics, even if I were the editor-in-chief and we could publish bimonthly or even quarterly at the beginning, could we really produce enough high-level mathematical papers?"

Without waiting for Yuan Xiangya to answer, he continued:

“Perhaps one or two issues may be okay in the short term, but it’s hard to sustain… If the quality of subsequent articles drops significantly, it will probably only have the opposite effect, right?”

"Um……"

Yuan Xiangya remained silent.

Obviously, Chang Haonan's concerns were correct.

However, it would be a pity if we don't strike while the iron is hot with such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

After a few years or even longer, even if Chang Haonan is still the editor-in-chief, the appeal generated will be completely different.

It's impossible that a genius will appear at that time and just happen to solve another millennium problem, right?

"Professor Yuan."

Just when Yuan Xiangya was in a dilemma, Chang Haonan suddenly changed the subject:

"In fact, I also think that this is a good opportunity."

"Ok?"

When the former heard this, although he was a little confused, he could also hear that there seemed to be hope.

“We don’t have to limit our gaze to theoretical mathematics.”

Chang Haonan turned the tables:

“Why not refer to Nature or Science and target multiple scientific fields?”

Yuan Xiangya was shocked:

“Wouldn’t that make it more difficult?”

“If we want to replace Nature or Science, it will be more difficult, but we are just starting out, so we should be more conservative in our goals.”

Chang Haonan explained:

“The first step should be to keep our journal in the middle or upper middle position of SCI. Apart from the impact factor, at least it should not be a water journal.”

"The second step is to consider joining the ranks of top international journals..."

"third step,……"

"..."

"Finally, if all of the above are achieved, then we can consider challenging the entire SCI evaluation standard and establishing our own academic system."

After such empty promises, Yuan Xiangya simply couldn't listen.

"This... is a bit..."

Although Chang Haonan said "be more conservative", it was obvious that only the first step could be considered conservative.

What follows is wild.

Like "Challenging SCI evaluation standards".

He didn't even think about it, let alone planning it.

But I never thought about it in the past, that’s a thing of the past.

Now that Chang Haonan mentioned this...

hiss……

This cake is so delicious!